Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine is one of the most important woks in all of
Western art. Only a handful of authentic panel painting of him survive. Enormously
curious, Leonardo often painted with experimental materials or abandoned projects
once he had mastered the formal challenge each presented. An object of the greatest
rarit, the Lady with an Ermine is a captivating image of exquisite elegance
and reveals the artistic genius of Leonardo da Vinci's incomparable creative mind.

Leonardo (1452-1519) painted this portrait while in Milan working for Duke Ludovico
Sforza (1451/1452-1508), one of the wealthiest and most powerful princes of Renaissance
Italy. Cecilia Gallerani is the sitter, a lady-in-waiting who became the duke's mistress
in 1489. The ermine she holds, a weasel in its winter coat, is a highly valued creature,
and here it provides the key to understanding the multiple layers of meaning conveyed by
the portrait. The Greek word for the animal is galee, an obvious play on "Gallerani",
Cecilia's family name. The ermine also refers to her character: according to legend, the
ermine is too fastidious to dirty it fur. Thus by extension, the ermine suggests Cecilia's
wholesome or pure nature. It is important that the ermine also refers directly to Duke
Ludovico himself. Having received the insignia of the chivalric Order of the Ermine from
the King of Naples in 1488, Ludovico was nicknamed Italico Morel bianco ermellino
("Italian Moor, white ermine"). Thus the painting celebrates both the girl's beauty and
the couples' relationship.

The Lady with an Ermine and two other portraits by Leonardo, the Ginervra de' Benci
[ca. 1474, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.) and the Mona Lisa (ca. 1503-1506),
Musée du Louvre, Paris] had a profound impact on the evolution of European portrait
based on antique models rigid formality of pose and psychological detachment to
emphasize supple and animatedform and a relaxed elegance. Extolled in lives of contemporary
poetry, Leonardo's completely novel Lady with an Ermine achieved an unprecedented
immediacy suggested through pose and gesture.